Don’t let yourself get bored. Why? Because it’s bbbboring! Yesah, it’s mental lethargy… giving up on possibilities. I’ve seen what bored people do. They slump. But if you want to be a cut above the rest, you have got to do what extraordinary people do.
Mathematician Paul Erdos was known to get bored quickly. But he never slumped. The moment he felt Boredom’s first sludgy touch, he junked what he was working on, took a fresh sheet of paper and started all over again. Try it.
A blank paper frees the imagination from the fetters of the familiar. Blankness or emptiness in the brain for a few seconds allows the near-infinite potential of ideas to throw up a new line of thinking.
I’ve stumbled on to a technique that works every time. You can do it too: Sit comfortably with a blank paper in front of you. Close your eyes. Tell yourself, “I empty my mind of all thoughts.” Visualise your thoughts streaming out of your head and dispersing like wisps of smoke until your mind is completely empty. Sit in this nothingness. And…it happens. Latent ideas, solutions trickle in. You’ll know precisely when to open your eyes and start jotting down stuff.
Another more dynamic technique is taking a night walk (in the safety of your terrace or compound). In daylight we often don a mask and suppress our feelings, our ‘wild’ ideas. But the night seems to give us permission to be our authentic selves, even suspend reason temporarily and dream on the wild side.
Our prosaic day thoughts link with the poetry of the night ones and create a new alchemy in us. By day we question, by night we can quest. And after this near-mystical night walk with the stars, the day acquires brighter sunbeams, holds new promises…
Ah yes, health is about wholesome food, sufficient exercise, positive thoughts… Health is also about nourishing and nurturing your creative spirit – trying new things, doing old stuff in new ways. So, when you are bored, don’t slump.
Ask, “What window of possibility can I open?”
Bazoonga! Your brain sits up!
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